Northern Mariana Islands – Chamorro heritage, colonial rule and WWII
The Northern Mariana Islands were settled thousands of years ago by seafarers from Island Southeast Asia, ancestors of the Chamorro people. They built villages on stone pillars known as latte stones, which remain a symbol of their culture today.
In 1521 Ferdinand Magellan's expedition reached the Marianas, and in the seventeenth century Spain colonised the islands, naming them after Queen Mariana of Austria. Spanish rule, missionary campaigns, conflicts and introduced diseases caused a dramatic decline of the Chamorro population, and many survivors were relocated to Guam. In the nineteenth century people from the Caroline Islands settled on Saipan, and the Refaluwasch (Carolinian) community is still part of island life. After the Spanish–American War, Spain sold the islands to Germany in 1899. Japan took control during the First World War and later developed a large sugar industry with many settlers.
In 1944 the Second World War reached the islands with fierce battles on Saipan and Tinian, causing heavy losses among soldiers and civilians. From Tinian, the aircraft that dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki took off. After the war the islands became part of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands under United States administration. Voters chose closer ties with the United States, and in 1978 the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands was established in political union with the U.S.
Today the islands are shaped by Chamorro and Carolinian traditions, their wartime memory and a close connection to the wider Pacific.
Do you have family stories or memories from Saipan, Tinian, Rota or the other islands? Share them with other members in the Local History section.